Charice Biography

Birth Name : Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco

Date of Birth : 10 May 1992, San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines

Height : 4' 11" (1.50 m)

Occupations : Singer-songwriter, actress

Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco, better known as Charice, was born in San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines. When she was three years old, she witnessed her abusive father point a gun at her mom during an episode of domestic violence. Along with her mother and younger brother Carl, they left their father in search of a better life.

Charice was very young when her mother noted that Charice's rendition of Happy Birthday was very high-pitched and on-key. When Charice was four years old, her mother Raquel came home to discover Charice standing on top of the kitchen table singing Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. She initially thought the radio was on and Celine was singing. Charice had learned to operate the karaoke machine by observing her mother, who was a singer in a band, practice with her band mates. It was then that Charice's singing talent was discovered.

In June 2007, Ten Songs/Productions, a music publishing company in Sweden, invited Charice to a demo-recording after producers saw her videos. She recorded seven songs – six covers and an original song entitled "Amazing". She was then invited to the South Korean talent show Star King on its October 13, 2007 edition, she sang "And I Am Telling You" and a duet of "A Whole New World" with Kyuhyun, from Super Junior.

After watching her Star King performance on YouTube, Ellen DeGeneres extended an on-air invitation to Pempengco to guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She flew to the United States for the first time and performed two songs on the December 19, 2007 episode of the show – "I Will Always Love You" and "And I Am Telling You". Following her American debut on Ellen, she made a second appearance on Star King as the "Most Requested Foreign Act" of the show. On its December 28 edition, she performed Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and sang a duet with singer Lena Park. In January 2008, she was invited to the Malacañang Palace where she performed for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

She returned to the international scene when she guested on the April 8 episode of The Paul O'Grady Show in London, England. Her self-titled Philippine debut album Charice was released in May 2008. The mini album, consisting of six songs and six backing tracks, was awarded gold certification in the Philippines in October 2008. The album eventually achieved platinum status in 2009. Pempengco appeared on the May 12 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode entitled the "World's Smartest Kids", where she performed Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing. After the show, Oprah Winfrey contacted David Foster to see what the legendary music producer could do for Pempengco.